Disclaimer:
What follows is a long rambling of a newbie's first pellet stove install. I hadn't used or owned a power tool (drill not included) since 7th grade shop.
This will be pretty basic and uninteresting info for most people, but I loved reading project/install posts this past summer when I was researching. So hopefully someone else finds this useful, too.
Parts Used:
This year we purchased our first pellet stove, right after purchasing our first home. It has electric heat, and back-of-the-envelope calculations showed we would be spending $4500/year on electric heat paying $.21kw/hr. The goal of this purchase was really to save money on heat.
The dealer wanted $1300 for delivery and install. For delivery, a hole in the wall, and a straight-out vent. On principle as much as finances, that motivated me to buy some power tools and grow my DIY skill. After all, I could do that WAY cheaper and I would get to keep the power tools!
I figure if I got a permit from the town building department and was careful, I couldn't mess up too badly...
The Purchase:
We have a 1970, 1600sqft split level ranch, 1100sqft on the upper level. They tried to sell us on the Francesca (8.500 - 35.000BTU). It was on sale for $2000. We liked the small size and appearance. Lowest pellet feed rate was 1lb/hr. Hopper was only 33lbs. What turned us off was the lower BTU, and a really, really annoying pellet feed motor. The RV100's motor was almost inaudible in comparison. It produces an extra 10k BTU, and it can hold a full bag of pellets at 55lbs. It has a smaller footprint at around 25" x 25". It's also going in our living room, so we wanted something that wouldn't look too out-of-place. Programmable timer, high/low/auto/off modes and an external thermostat were must-have features on our list. At the lowest setting it would consume 1.3lbs of pellets per hour. about 25% less than many other name brands. The ash bin was muuuuch bigger on RV100 vs RV80s and Francesca. Also muuuch easier to remove. The RV80 innards were essentially the noisy Francesca, the sales person told us. The RV100 was their "top of the line" with their best parts.
So after 2 weeks, visiting 3 dealers, and compiling a spreadsheet with 22 rows and 15 columns of specs, we went with the RV100 Classic. We also liked the Lopi Deerfield. I decided against buying used as this would be my first pellet stove and I didn't know what to look for, or have the time to fix it up and learn before winter. The parents steered us away from Home Depot & mail order stoves because of lack of support should it break down.
After much debate about where to place it: upstairs (living room, kitchen, bath, 3 beds) or down (family room), we decided on upstairs. It was tempting to try to heat the entire house from the basement, and while some people have had success, others haven't. We didn't want to make such a large investment only to be cold upstairs. In a few years we plan on adding a wood insert downstairs in the family room.
I also built the hearth pad to save another $400 and learn how to lay tile, but I'll put that in another post.
Actual Install:
We wanted it in the center of that side of the house so it would blow straight down the middle, past the kitchen, bath, and toward the bedrooms. That meant it had to be vented 1' from the three seasons room (possible with OAK), and 6" from an outlet. This was my first time cutting a hole in the wall for anything and I was a little anxious as you can't just undo a hole in your wall or cut lines. No backup to restore from.
I cut a small hole after turning off power to the entire house, using a manual drywall saw. I didn't want to use power tools as I didn't want to accidentally slice through a stud or wire. I felt around inside and verified the electric was installed vertically in the stud bay down from the attic. Perfect. Stud location was also great.
They delivered to my living room, onto the hearth pad. Furniture sliders under the hearth pad. My wife and I won't be able to lift it, and we have no neighbors to help either, so this was a critical detail.
After weeks of watching youtube videos and reading this forum, it was time to cut out a hole in the wall.
The inside was easy to cut open. The insulation was a quick job for the drywall saw. I drilled holes through to the outside, then used a jigsaw to finish the hole from the outside. It took two or three tries of cutting, hooking up thimble and vents, sliding stove into position, undoing, and trying again, before it was the perfect height.
Cutting the vinyl siding was the hardest part. I've seen people install over the siding, but I wanted a good seal without gaps. Learning on the job, a utility knife was about as effective as a butter knife would have been. It turns out tin snips are what people often use. Did I want left-handed or right-handed? 7th grade shop was blurry, so I watched youtube videos with the guy at TruValue and decided on a right-handed version, thinking it would be easy to reverse. It wasn't, so I went back for a left-handed pair. And half-ruined both cutting through the overlapping bit of vinyl -- 3 layers. Absolute pain. It was 40 degrees out that day. Both the siding and my hands were stiff and cold. Not sure if there was an easier way to do this.
Installing the thimble and vent pipe absolutely takes two people. One side will be falling off as you try to push on the other. The fit was a bit tight so I used a pliers to slightly bend in the rim of the inner thimble's piece.
Went to bed. It rained. Oh no... should have checked the forecast. Didn't caulk the outside yet... luckily it was light rain and that side of the house was pretty dry.
Woke up, hardware store for screws and indoor/outdoor silicon caulk. Screwed the thimble into place using regular wood screws on the outside and small screws on the inside. Caulked the crap out of it. I actually didn't use drywall anchors for the inside piece as the thimble already felt sturdy, and I was too lazy to unplug the stove slide it out, measure and drill more holes for the anchors. The screw driver barely fit between the back of the stove and the wall the way it was.
Operation:
Load in the free bag of Lingetic pellets, power it on, and hold my breath. She works! Crack open a beer. I spend a good hour in amazement that I can press a button on a remote to start a fire in my living room. Prehistoric technology meets microchips.
I found the fan noise of even the lowest setting quite loud, let alone medium or high. About twice as loud as the dealer's show room. Information on that and other Ravelli-specific details are in the Ravelli RV100's Owner's Thread. I was able to resolve that by getting into the dealer-only menu.
Touch pad is a giant pain in the butt to operate. I can handle ugly looks, but the thing only has three buttons (including on/off), is slow, and sometimes doesn't register button presses. You have to hold down two buttons to go back on the menu. But I knew that getting into it. The plan is to hook it up to a programmable thermostat eventually. The menu works well enough for basic on/off temp/power functions.
Pellets:
I didn't know what to buy and didn't have much time to research or sample, so I went with what I thought were quality pellets from http://ctpellet.com . After calling 8 places and compiling another spreadsheet, the lowest price I could find in late August was $259 for hammers.
I ended up getting one ton of each
$982 total. I was hoping to scrape by below $800. Maybe next season if I order early.
All came dry, very well covered, and delivered to the exact locations I had marked out in duct tape.
Estimated Cost:
Takeaways:
Summary:
The self-install was totally worth it. Now to wait for winter and see how the stove performs.
What follows is a long rambling of a newbie's first pellet stove install. I hadn't used or owned a power tool (drill not included) since 7th grade shop.
This will be pretty basic and uninteresting info for most people, but I loved reading project/install posts this past summer when I was researching. So hopefully someone else finds this useful, too.
Parts Used:
- DuraVent PelletVent Pro - Ravelli appliance adapter (absolutely needed this; the standard size didn't fit); 24" pipe; 12" pipe; 45 degree terminator; thimble with outside air intake. All 3"
- Permatex High-Temp Red RT Gasket Maker. This is "RTV 500 Silicon" that the manual called for.
- Indoor/outdoor silicon caulk and chepo caulk gun
- Basic tools: drywall saw, (broken link removed), tin snips, drill, stud finder, gloves, goggles, ventilator
- 27 3" circular furniture sliders from Lowes
- Black high-temp grill spray paint so my venting didn't look like a zebra tail sticking out of my house.
- 2' x 4' 3/4" plywood to stabilize the step ladder
- Wife for holding things and lining up the thimble
- Kidde Night Hawk CO Detectors x 3 . Didn't want to skimp here. Measures down to 11ppm with digital display. 24 max-value memory. One by the stove, one by the bedrooms, one in the basement.
- 4-pack of Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze New England-style IPA.
This year we purchased our first pellet stove, right after purchasing our first home. It has electric heat, and back-of-the-envelope calculations showed we would be spending $4500/year on electric heat paying $.21kw/hr. The goal of this purchase was really to save money on heat.
The dealer wanted $1300 for delivery and install. For delivery, a hole in the wall, and a straight-out vent. On principle as much as finances, that motivated me to buy some power tools and grow my DIY skill. After all, I could do that WAY cheaper and I would get to keep the power tools!
I figure if I got a permit from the town building department and was careful, I couldn't mess up too badly...
The Purchase:
We have a 1970, 1600sqft split level ranch, 1100sqft on the upper level. They tried to sell us on the Francesca (8.500 - 35.000BTU). It was on sale for $2000. We liked the small size and appearance. Lowest pellet feed rate was 1lb/hr. Hopper was only 33lbs. What turned us off was the lower BTU, and a really, really annoying pellet feed motor. The RV100's motor was almost inaudible in comparison. It produces an extra 10k BTU, and it can hold a full bag of pellets at 55lbs. It has a smaller footprint at around 25" x 25". It's also going in our living room, so we wanted something that wouldn't look too out-of-place. Programmable timer, high/low/auto/off modes and an external thermostat were must-have features on our list. At the lowest setting it would consume 1.3lbs of pellets per hour. about 25% less than many other name brands. The ash bin was muuuuch bigger on RV100 vs RV80s and Francesca. Also muuuch easier to remove. The RV80 innards were essentially the noisy Francesca, the sales person told us. The RV100 was their "top of the line" with their best parts.
So after 2 weeks, visiting 3 dealers, and compiling a spreadsheet with 22 rows and 15 columns of specs, we went with the RV100 Classic. We also liked the Lopi Deerfield. I decided against buying used as this would be my first pellet stove and I didn't know what to look for, or have the time to fix it up and learn before winter. The parents steered us away from Home Depot & mail order stoves because of lack of support should it break down.
After much debate about where to place it: upstairs (living room, kitchen, bath, 3 beds) or down (family room), we decided on upstairs. It was tempting to try to heat the entire house from the basement, and while some people have had success, others haven't. We didn't want to make such a large investment only to be cold upstairs. In a few years we plan on adding a wood insert downstairs in the family room.
I also built the hearth pad to save another $400 and learn how to lay tile, but I'll put that in another post.
Actual Install:
We wanted it in the center of that side of the house so it would blow straight down the middle, past the kitchen, bath, and toward the bedrooms. That meant it had to be vented 1' from the three seasons room (possible with OAK), and 6" from an outlet. This was my first time cutting a hole in the wall for anything and I was a little anxious as you can't just undo a hole in your wall or cut lines. No backup to restore from.
I cut a small hole after turning off power to the entire house, using a manual drywall saw. I didn't want to use power tools as I didn't want to accidentally slice through a stud or wire. I felt around inside and verified the electric was installed vertically in the stud bay down from the attic. Perfect. Stud location was also great.
They delivered to my living room, onto the hearth pad. Furniture sliders under the hearth pad. My wife and I won't be able to lift it, and we have no neighbors to help either, so this was a critical detail.
After weeks of watching youtube videos and reading this forum, it was time to cut out a hole in the wall.
The inside was easy to cut open. The insulation was a quick job for the drywall saw. I drilled holes through to the outside, then used a jigsaw to finish the hole from the outside. It took two or three tries of cutting, hooking up thimble and vents, sliding stove into position, undoing, and trying again, before it was the perfect height.
Cutting the vinyl siding was the hardest part. I've seen people install over the siding, but I wanted a good seal without gaps. Learning on the job, a utility knife was about as effective as a butter knife would have been. It turns out tin snips are what people often use. Did I want left-handed or right-handed? 7th grade shop was blurry, so I watched youtube videos with the guy at TruValue and decided on a right-handed version, thinking it would be easy to reverse. It wasn't, so I went back for a left-handed pair. And half-ruined both cutting through the overlapping bit of vinyl -- 3 layers. Absolute pain. It was 40 degrees out that day. Both the siding and my hands were stiff and cold. Not sure if there was an easier way to do this.
Installing the thimble and vent pipe absolutely takes two people. One side will be falling off as you try to push on the other. The fit was a bit tight so I used a pliers to slightly bend in the rim of the inner thimble's piece.
Went to bed. It rained. Oh no... should have checked the forecast. Didn't caulk the outside yet... luckily it was light rain and that side of the house was pretty dry.
Woke up, hardware store for screws and indoor/outdoor silicon caulk. Screwed the thimble into place using regular wood screws on the outside and small screws on the inside. Caulked the crap out of it. I actually didn't use drywall anchors for the inside piece as the thimble already felt sturdy, and I was too lazy to unplug the stove slide it out, measure and drill more holes for the anchors. The screw driver barely fit between the back of the stove and the wall the way it was.
Operation:
Load in the free bag of Lingetic pellets, power it on, and hold my breath. She works! Crack open a beer. I spend a good hour in amazement that I can press a button on a remote to start a fire in my living room. Prehistoric technology meets microchips.
I found the fan noise of even the lowest setting quite loud, let alone medium or high. About twice as loud as the dealer's show room. Information on that and other Ravelli-specific details are in the Ravelli RV100's Owner's Thread. I was able to resolve that by getting into the dealer-only menu.
Touch pad is a giant pain in the butt to operate. I can handle ugly looks, but the thing only has three buttons (including on/off), is slow, and sometimes doesn't register button presses. You have to hold down two buttons to go back on the menu. But I knew that getting into it. The plan is to hook it up to a programmable thermostat eventually. The menu works well enough for basic on/off temp/power functions.
Pellets:
I didn't know what to buy and didn't have much time to research or sample, so I went with what I thought were quality pellets from http://ctpellet.com . After calling 8 places and compiling another spreadsheet, the lowest price I could find in late August was $259 for hammers.
I ended up getting one ton of each
- $309 Barefoot and Beautiful. That's the real name. The "and Beautiful" part distinguishes the 25lb bags from the 40lb bags.
- $289 Okanagan Super Premium Platinum (how many more adjectives can you fit in a name?)
- $309 Super Spruce Softwood
- $65 discounted delivery to the garage
$982 total. I was hoping to scrape by below $800. Maybe next season if I order early.
All came dry, very well covered, and delivered to the exact locations I had marked out in duct tape.
Estimated Cost:
- $200 delivery inside of house
- $190 venting
- $20 caulk, screws, etc
- $180 jigsaw, drywall saw
- $14 Voodoo Ranger Purple Haze IPA 4-pack
- $604 total
Takeaways:
- Furniture sliders under the hearth pad were invaluable for moving the stove during the install
- A jigsaw or reciprocating saw is absolutely required. It sliced through all 8 layers of my wall like butter
- Tinsnips cut vinyl, but there might be a better way
Summary:
- 2 days / 15 hours
- 6 trips to the hardware store
- $900 saved on installation (minus tools)
- $2500 estimated savings on heating bill
- < 2 years projected payback
- Gained practical knowledge about jigsaws, cutting holes in things, caulk, venting, fire codes
- 2 new friends in the town's building department from all of my visits
- Gained knowledge: jigsaws and cutting things, BTU and heat loss calculations
The self-install was totally worth it. Now to wait for winter and see how the stove performs.
Attachments
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232143-07b8e414c42d4bda45e3f82aa48e717c.jpg?hash=qAKo0COoGc)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232144-669f5e51df86a27296eca8c79604361c.jpg?hash=2x5DXw0_5J)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232145-ca5ad36dad1a51b57ed850766762bc75.jpg?hash=uqixf4Je2-)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232146-5713ea355787a8365a541ba4460a884e.jpg?hash=IOv7llHsfr)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232147-313125fdc96c9ba55c1795c3d308d280.jpg?hash=1z36Fu4H2E)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232148-3c64f0c4596a1b39bb415d8a446cc7e9.jpg?hash=CPmkhVV8w6)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232149-90ebf1b2802d77226223870b632f44eb.jpg?hash=cLjsNcx8X6)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232150-b1ebdb7d98a8c64c3f4d5018a2b598c0.jpg?hash=dt1dIsVkJJ)
![[Hearth.com] New Ravelli RV100 Classic self-install and photos](/talk/data/attachments/232/232151-38f00fbd8c74c389463b475ce0ffb81e.jpg?hash=vQy9bm0-T9)
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